WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 24

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The sixth floor was already rippling with ominous magical power, strong enough to be felt from below. This was different from the magical power I had sensed earlier. Malice and despair surged through it, impossible to hide, crawling over my skin. A suffocating pressure weighed down on me.

I carefully sent one puppet up.

I was prepared for it to be destroyed at once. I had even placed more puppets on standby for that exact reason.

But nothing happened.

The puppet climbed the stairs and looked around. The passage was spotless. Even the paintings and sculptures arranged along the walls proudly displayed themselves, lighting the way.

Contrary to what I had expected, everything looked perfectly fine.

The puppet cautiously moved forward. Once it reached the central hall, it turned in place and scanned in every direction. Through it, the structure of the sixth floor was transmitted into my head.

The central hall was immaculate. Perfect, without a single speck of dust. It was so intact that I could even guess what the previous floors must have looked like before they had been ruined beyond recognition.

The sixth floor was also made up of ten rooms, just like the floors below. It seemed the tower’s overall structure was built this way. The central hall and twelve paths formed the tower’s foundation.

Then what kind of space was this sixth floor supposed to be? One room had its door half open, so I went inside. A few odds and ends were scattered around. But those, too, were undamaged and in perfectly good condition.

The puppet left the room and naturally retraced its steps. As if nothing was wrong, it fiddled with a painting and a sculpture hanging on the wall, then went back down the stairs to the fifth floor.

I quickly inspected the puppet with magical power.

I could not sense anything wrong.

My face hardened. The fact that nothing was wrong made it even stranger. It had been soaking in that ominous magical power, yet there was no problem at all?

I activated the explosive magic built into the puppet. Red circuits began drawing themselves across the puppet’s entire body. They soon formed a single magic circle, and in the next instant, the puppet exploded.

At the same time, a thin thread of mocking laughter leaked out through the magical power. It vanished inside the explosion.

I blocked the impact with protective magic and stepped back. Something I had not noticed at all had been mixed into the puppet. A chill ran through my chest. What if I had failed to notice anything? I might have died right there.

I went over the scenes the puppet had sent me once more.

From the puppet’s perspective, the sixth floor’s scenery had looked perfectly normal. I had thought the same until partway through. But when the Sapling shook its body in agitation, I sensed that something was slightly off.

I felt that strangeness clearly after entering the room. Those unknown odds and ends. There were pieces of wood, and there were stones. As the puppets observed them, I finally noticed what was bizarre about this floor.

There was no magic.

Most of the floors I had climbed so far had been covered in dust because their magic had broken down. In the case of the third floor, the only one that had been intact, the magic forming the floor had been fully alive.

Yet when seen through the puppet’s eyes, there was no magic being maintained on the sixth floor.

Then how could it possibly be intact?

Something had clearly manipulated the puppet’s vision. With that thought, I examined the puppet extremely thoroughly. But I found nothing, and only after blowing up the puppet did I finally manage to find a trace.

My face stiffened, and I quickly retreated from the stairs leading to the sixth floor. The ominous magical power began rippling even more strongly. As if it knew I had seen through it, the magical power let out a laugh.

“But I have to get through there, huh...”

A bitter smile came to my lips.

Cleaning. That word had me firmly tied down. This was not just coming from my own natural feelings. I looked at my wrist. The contract was binding me tightly.

“If I receive Irian’s teachings and pass the university entrance exam, I promise to serve Irian until graduation.”

This thing had started activating after the entrance ceremony ended. It had bound my tree and forced my actions. It was the same now. Every time I wanted to run downstairs, the contract faintly trembled and pressed down on me.

Did even this order to clean count as service? This was why mages did not make contracts. If something was included in a contract, it had to be carried out no matter what.

So I had no choice but to move forward. Even though something bizarre enough to mix into my puppet and deceive me was lurking on the floor above.

I steeled myself. It was something I would have done even without the contract. Whatever was up there, it could not be scarier than Professor.

I remembered being beaten so badly it felt like my soul was being torn out. The fear I felt now could not surpass the terror of that time. Once I remembered that, confidence welled up in me. Nothing was scary.

Sending another puppet would be meaningless. I had to take that path anyway. In the end, I needed to check it with my own body.

I looked at the turtle in my hand. This thing was the only one I could trust right now. It met my eyes and moved its mouth. The Sapling controlled it and emitted magical power as if telling me to trust it.

I took a deep breath and slowly climbed the stairs.

As soon as I reached the sixth floor, I quickly scanned my surroundings. As expected, all the information the puppet had sent me had been nothing but deception. Everything around me was covered in dust and trash. Still, I could not find anything strange.

I placed the puppets in front and made them clean. They skillfully cleared the path as they advanced. I watched them closely while probing the surrounding magical power.

Ominous magical power filled the entire sixth floor. My heart pounded. It felt as if something was watching me through that magical power. No, it was definitely watching me.

“I came here to clean! This is a task Professor Irian entrusted to me!”

I shouted that for no real reason. This was Professor’s tower. This unknown existence had to be connected to Professor, too. If I made that clear, I thought it might become a little more cautious.

The magical power swayed slightly. It seemed even that thing was a bit surprised. I let out a sigh of relief inwardly. Judging by the magical power’s reaction, I thought I might be able to get through more easily.

That was a huge mistake.

It happened when I had advanced about halfway to the central hall. At some point, I realized someone was walking in front of me. I had no idea when that person had appeared there. They had settled into my field of vision so naturally.

A chill ran down my spine. There should definitely be no one here except me. Several puppets shot out at once. But they could not reach that person. They suddenly staggered and ran in the wrong direction instead. Magical power and magic were no different.

That person walked while maintaining a fixed distance from me. When I ran, they ran. When I walked, they walked.

No matter how much I sped up, I could not catch up to that existence. The ominous magical power around me grew thicker and thicker.

And when I reached the central hall, I realized it.

Ah, that was my back.

In an instant, the atmosphere of the space changed sharply.

Giggling whispers rang beside my ears from every direction. At the same time, the space began to split. The walls shook, and the floor melted as if sliding away.

I hurriedly checked the path I had come through. The path to the fifth floor had already melted away and vanished without a trace. The ominous magical power, now thick as fog, seemed to be clouding my mind.

“Damn it.”

I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. The sharp pain woke my mind. I had to focus.

I threw the turtle to the floor and launched myself forward. The turtle enlarged its body and landed on the ground. When that heavy mass stepped on the floor, the melting ground began to churn. But as if it could not withstand the weight, it could not break free.

My body was sucked straight into the turtle. Good thing I had taken the turtle out in case something like this happened. The turtle immediately began running at high speed.

The turtle was not as sturdy as it had been during the exam. The problem was not magic, but materials.

Repairing the parts consumed during the exam required various materials, but I did not have enough money for them. This was what happened because I had not been able to sell a single puppet after Professor settled in. In the end, I had tearfully filled it with wood for now.

If I had known I would use it again this soon, I would have gone into debt to restore it perfectly! I controlled the turtle while regretting it.

I had no idea when that thing might seep into the turtle’s body. To defend against that, I scattered plenty of my magical power through the turtle’s body and activated defensive magic. I checked outside through the turtle’s mouth and quickly moved forward.

Far ahead, I saw the stairs. In this writhing reality, only the stairs stood intact. The farther the turtle advanced, the more severe the changes became.

The walls narrowed in as if trying to crush the turtle, and the ground underfoot sucked the turtle in like a swamp. The many puppets that had been following me were already submerged inside it and had vanished somewhere.

The turtle did not let me down. It crushed the walls closing in on it and advanced. It trampled the floor trying to bind its feet and kept running.

The turtle shook off all that interference and soon reached my back. Since I had settled inside the turtle and was not moving, that thing stood in place without moving either.

The turtle stomped on it.

It scattered like an illusion. At the same time, cackling laughter rang beside my ears. That laughter made my head spin.

I bit the tip of my tongue and forced my mind awake. There was not much left now. The stairs were right in front of me. The closer I got to the stairs, the thinner the ominous magical power filling the sixth floor became. Maybe that thing’s power did not reach this far, because all the interference gradually weakened too.

Only when I reached the stairs could I finally let out a sigh of relief.

I climbed down from the turtle and collapsed on the stairs. That laughter. It still seemed to be echoing in my head. The turtle quickly shrank and returned to my hand.

I crawled up to the middle of the stairs and gasped for breath. Looking down, I swallowed. The sixth floor had twisted as much as it could twist, and every path back was blocked. As if bitterly disappointed that it had failed to catch me, the magical power kept writhing and trying to approach the stairs.

Forget cleaning. The sixth floor had been completely ruined. Professor would understand this, right? I looked at the spiral staircase continuing above my head and drew in a deep breath.

I had to climb.

There was no choice, and no time.

All the puppets I had with me had disappeared too.

That was how I stepped onto the seventh floor. But to my surprise, this place was fine.

All the magic forming the seventh floor was operating naturally. It looked completely different from the sixth floor. I could not sense any strange magical power, and there was no sign of anything odd.

Holding the turtle in my arms, I slowly moved forward. It did not take long to reach the hall. The path there was very comfortable and clean. I began to feel a little relieved.

Then, when I reached the hall, my mind went blank.

What is that? That was the thought I had while looking at the ceiling.

There was a single vast universe.

No, it was a sphere that seemed to contain the universe.

That was not it either. What was there was a giant eye.

My eyes met it.

At that moment, my vision shattered.

The form of all things split into twelve branches, and all those paths appeared as one eye. The true reason inherent within it led me into an endless abyss, and I accepted it with all my strength. That unifiedreason burrowed into me and broke everythingthat made me, and I meltedinto partof it through pain. My soulwas crushed, and myexistence shattered into piecesand seeped into tiny darkness. It devoursme. I, Iam no longerme. Inside thewhirlpoolofmadness, twelveofmelaughendlessly. Ibelongtothem andyettheyaremine intheprocessofbecoming inthatthinginsideit thesoulmine watchesandlaughssoulmyendlessisbornagainandendlessisannihilated

“Ah, I made a mistake. I didn’t know this would be out.”

Something struck my head.

My mind cut off, and my consciousness was sucked into darkness.

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